Feel My Love
by dinis
Summary: Lily and MWPP in their 6th year. Lily falls in love with someone else, but James loves her too. What will James do? Will he give up on her? Will he somehow get her to like him? my version! strong lh! rr please?
1. Threatening Gets to a Girl

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Hi! I am so glad that you are reading the very first chapter of my latest story. The first chapter seems irrelevant to the story, but is the main point in the plot. This is a fluffy, read-by-the-fire-on-a-rainy-day-kind story. So have fun!  
  
Summary: Lily is in her 6th year at Hogwarts along with all her friends. Lily falls in love with another boy, but James, also loves her too. Will he give up on her? Or will he get her to fall in love with him? Read and find out.  
  
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own any characters that you may recognize in the story; they all belong to JK Rowling and her brilliant mind.  
  
R/r please!!!  
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Chapter 1--- Threatening Get to A Girl  
  
It was two weeks before school started and Lily just didn't know how to spend the time until then. Her parents had suggested of number of things to occupy herself in, including going to Paris for a couple of days. Lily, reluctantly, listened to her parents and went to Paris for a week tour.  
  
Now Lily sat all alone on the Spanish Steps cursing herself for listening to her parents. What was even worse was that they had stuck Lily's wrecked and spoiled older sister, Petunia, with her.  
  
Lily stood up and started heading towards Petunia, who was flirting with a boy nearby.  
  
"Petunia, can we go back to the hotel?" Lily asked as nicely as she could. Petunia narrowed her eyes at Lily for a moment, then smiled at the boy and pulled Lily over to the side yelling "excusez moi" to the boy.  
  
Lily hated Petunia, and Petunia safely despised Lily. When the they could no longer be heard by any, Petunia turned around and hissed, "Never talk to me in public, you freak!" Petunia scowled and then her expression changed into a nasty-snobby smile. "You can go back to the hotel if you want, but I have been invited to a party." Petunia could not have put that sentence any slyer than she did. In a flash, Petunia pulled out her purse, slapped some money onto Lily's hand, and left flipping her short blonde hair behind her.  
  
Lily rolled her eyes and walked on in the opposite direction. Lily played with her necklace debating with herself whether to go back to the hotel or not. Lily thought about it for another moment and then headed towards the one thing she really wanted to see: the Le Pont Neuf.  
  
Lily called a cab and in minutes was at the Pont Neuf, the most famous bridge in all of Paris, mesmerized by the beauty of the architecture. Although it was nearly sun set, the place was empty, except for a few couples here and there. Feeling more alone than ever, Lily walked to the bridge and leaned over it looking at her reflection in the water. She had beautiful, fiery, wavy red hair. Although the water didn't show, Lily had amazing fresh-looking green eyes. She was petite at only 5'4. Her complexion was porcelain and flawless. Lily walked for a couple of minutes looking for a comfortable and scenic spot where she would be able to watch the sun set. Finally, she chose a spot that took her breath away. It was so beautiful the way the sun melted into the sky changing the color.  
  
Lily leaned over the bridge watching the sunset, and thought about the one thing she couldn't stop thinking about: Hogwarts. Lily was entering her sixth year t Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With amazing friends, and teachers the place was more magical than it seemed for Lily. Lily played with the butterfly necklace on her neck. It was the one thing in the world that bought her good luck, and she absolutely loved it. Her thoughts were suddenly disturbed when someone called her name, Lily spun around, and the necklace broke from her neck and in a flash splashed into the water. Lily turned back around and gasped not able to comprehend what had just happened. No one had called her, and now her very special necklace was lost.  
  
Tears blinded Lily, as she looked innocently around, wiping the tears with her jacket she completely missed the face of the person who bravely jumped into the water after the necklace. Lily looked up hearing a big splash, she leaned over the bridge looking for any sigh of a person swimming, but nothing, there was no trace of anybody, not even any air bubbles.  
  
It took a moment for Lily to realize what had occurred: the person was dead. Everything stopped for a second and then the next, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Lily screamed.  
  
"NOOOOO! THAT CAN'T BE!" Lily screamed again.  
  
"No, sweetie! Get up! Lily get up, sweetie!" yelled Mrs. Evans, Lily's mother, as her sixteen-year-old daughter sat up and hugged her in shock. "It was just a dream, honey." Mrs. Evans whispered into Lily's ear over and over again.  
  
"Mom, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to! It was all my fault!" Lily's tear broke out and began raining down her red cheeks.  
  
"Was it the one at the Le Pont Neuf person again?" her mother questioned, concern clearly seen in her eyes. Lily nodded weakly, tearing up again. "Look, Lily, it was not your fault. You didn't tell them to go after your necklace. Listen, it was not your fault for what happened."  
  
"But mom," Lily quietly protested, "whoever it was went after my necklace."  
  
"You don't know that!" Her other smiled reassuringly and Lily smiled back weakly. Lily was not completely recovered from what had happened at the bridge, although there was no body found, she believed that the person was dead and that it was all her fault. "Now, Lily, you have to get ready, we have to go to King's Cross today!"

* * *

Lily embraced her parents one last time and then headed towards the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 with her trunk. In a flash, Lily entered Platform 9¾, where a train was waiting patiently.  
  
A grin spread across Lily's face as she spotted her best friend, Piper Colvard, heading towards the rain with her luggage.  
  
"Piper!" Lily walked over to Piper, pushing her trolley slowly through the crowded station. Piper was a brunette, with green eyes, and porcelain complexion. With her slender figure, Piper was definitely a heartthrob at Hogwarts.  
  
"Hey, Lily! How are you?" Piper asked embracing her friend in a quick hug.  
  
"I am fine!" Lily stated simply, letting go of Piper.  
  
"We better go find a compartment." Piper suggested pulling her trunk and putting it up on the train.  
  
Piper and Lily walked through the train looking for their traditional compartment, which they sat in every year. It took another five minutes of pushing and shoving through the train with their heavy trunks to find their old compartment.  
  
Walking into the small, neat compartment, Lily remembered her first year entering the compartment, completely afraid and terrified until she found three girls just like her; the rest lies in history.  
  
Lily and Piper sat down ready to, in detail, tell each other everything that happened during their summer vacation. Piper stared in shock as Lily informed her about her Paris trip and about the boy who had jumped insanely after the necklace. After the story was over, Lily was in tears, and Piper was patting her shoulder comfortingly.  
  
"You don't know that he jumped for your necklace." Piper repeated, Mrs. Evans exact wording. Lily looked up, her usual bright-green eyes showed no doubt about what she thought.

"Hey!" Piper said cheerfully, forgetting the subject, "Do you fancy anyone yet?" Piper's desperate attempts to change had worked and Lily's mood changed almost instantly.  
  
"No! Piper, how many times do I have to remind you," Lily smiled dreamily and looked away, "The first guy I tell 'I love you' to will be the guy I fancy. I don't believe in all that dating to love stuff, I just think that's all nonsense. I am going to meet the guy and just know it's him."  
  
Piper rolled her eyes at her friend just as the train was about to move. Lily looked out the window at the Platform, where at the moment four boys entered through the barrier running towards the train their trunks waggling behind them. Lily recognized the most popular, yet big-headed-egotistical jerks, at Hogwarts, or more commonly known as the Marauders.  
  
In front of everyone with a bewildered expression stood the ringleader of the infamous group was none other than James Potter, the son of high class Aurors. James Potter was the most wanted bachelor in all of Hogwarts. He was very good looking and built strong. He stood tall at 6',with messy black hair and hazel eyes.  
  
Next to James, stood another member of the Marauder gang, Sirius Black. Sirius Black was not at all the way his name sounded. He was lighthearted. Sirius was also very irresistible, unlike James, Sirius had fun playing with girls, and dating a different one every week was not unusual. Sirius was also strongly built, 6' with gray smoky eyes, he was definitely a guy worth ogling over.  
  
On the other side of James stood Remus Lupin, the calmer yet charming one of the gang. He had ear-length dirty blonde hair light blue-green eyes. Remus was the most sensible one of the group also with soft caressing sense of style. Remus was 5'11 with an impressive smile and brilliant mind.  
  
Behind everyone, pulling his heavy trunk, with his owl screeching loudly, was Peter Pettigrew. No one understood why or how he became a member of the Marauder gang. He was short, only about 5'9, had bleached blonde hair and piggy little brown eyes. Peter was not seen often with the gang, he could be found lurking or spying in the hallway, murmuring to himself importantly.  
  
Not only were the Marauder gang popular by their good looks, they were also brilliant students, each excelling at his best subject.  
  
Lily giggled as she saw the shocked expression on James's face as the train passed slowly leaving the platform and gathering speed. In another flash the boys began running again through the crowd waving good-bye. They managed to get on the train before the doors closed completely.  
  
The second the train had started to move, Piper had pulled out her black leather diary, the peacock quill and began writing excessively fast. Piper had a beautiful habit of writing everything in her diary. Lily looked out the window again, the train was in full speed now, and was quickly passing through the city of London and coming into the more suburban areas.  
  
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" some interrupted Lily's thoughts. A head poked through the compartment door. Lily recognized the face immediately as another one of her best friends Diondra Davies. "Can we come in?" Diondra smiled cheerfully, letting herself in, her trunk behind her. Diondra had bright natural blonde hair and blue crystal-like eyes. She had an amazing and unique sense of style; from her speech to wardrobe, Diondra set the meaning for the word 'different'.  
  
Following Diondra was Grace Kim, another one of Lily's best friends, the shy, sweet girl of the group with a brilliant mind and an amazing sense of humor. "Hi, Lily! Hi, Piper!" Grace said sweetly coming into the compartment following Diondra.  
  
After the formalities have been exchanged, the girls began discussing about the upcoming year; Quidditch, parties, and eventually the topic of boys came up.  
  
"I am going to make Severus Snape kiss me this year, or die trying!" Diondra declared out loud putting her hand up in swearing motion. Diondra was muggleborn and Severus Snape being a Slytherin hated muggleborns. He had teased Diondra relentlessly, catching her, mostly off-guard, for four years. Until one day, in their fourth year, Diondra declared that she had fallen madly in love with Severus and she lived to see him scowl at her. No one understood what provoked Diondra, one of the most beautiful girls at Hogwarts, to make such a brutal and slimish decision. Diondra had never faltered or went after another boy after that making everyone believe that she really was in love with him. So, ever since then Snape kept at least a mile in distance from her, while Diondra tried harder to get close to him.  
  
"Why do you like him?" Piper asked curiously.  
  
"True love is born without reason!" Diondra smiled dreamily looking out the window.  
  
The others shook their heads in disbelief, right before Diondra decided to shift the energy force to the girl sitting quietly staring out the window absorbed in her own thoughts.  
  
"So! Lils!" Diondra sang, "Who do you fancy?"  
  
Lily was just sinking back into her thoughts again, when Diondra, on cue, interrupted. But Lily didn't need to think for a response, she quickly stated—  
  
"The first guy that I tell 'I love you' to will be the guy for me. I am sure that I can find that person and without thinking, I will go up to them and tell him that I love him." It was something Lily always said; yet no one understood why she said it.  
  
The others never pushed the subject, which would surely bring out the famous fiery temper in Lily. Feeling the moment tense, Diondra turned to Grace, "You got any ideas on how to get Severus to like me?" Grace giggled at the thought and nodded sweetly.  
  
Piper, who was still writing insanely smiled up at Lily and Lily smiled back.  
  
In minutes Lily went back to her thoughts, which strayed on in a pointless direction and came back to the same point after awhile, or where she started. Her thoughts always seemed to linger onto the Paris trip. Piper was still scribbling something in her diary, Diondra and Grace were talking about ideas and all seemed quite usual.  
  
Halfway into the trip the girls, getting bored of their surroundings, decided to go ingle with the other students, and according to Diondra, scare any first years they could find. Although the other insisted that she come with them, Lily stayed behind fibbing that she was just too tired and in a way she was.  
  
Torturing herself again and again about the same thing, Lily leaned against the window and let sleep wash over her.

* * *

"Lily! Wake up!" Piper yelled in Lily's ear. Lily awoke with a fright and glared at Piper for yelling so loudly. Piper was already changed into her robes and looking around Lily noticed so were Grace and Diondra.  
  
Lily looked out the window, it was almost dark and the sun was setting.  
  
"You should change into your robes. We will be arriving in a couple of minutes." Grace handed Lily her robes. Lily changed instantly without questioning.  
  
Diondra was muttering to herself insanely while reading a book and making funny faces when flipping the pages. "What's wrong, Dia?" Lily asked curiously acknowledging the expression on Diondra's face. Diondra's usual cheerful manner had been replaced with cold-brutal hatred.  
  
"I hate that Sirius Black!" Diondra yelled, "He asked me if I was a virgin! The nerve of that boy! Just because he has parents in high places, he thinks he's all that! How dare he questions me! Of course I am virgin!" Diondra's quick temper died down and she went back to reading her book, still muttering to herself about people not having manners in the new age.  
  
Lily looked at Piper and Piper explained their encounter with the Marauder gang a while ago when they went to talk with the others on the train.  
  
Lily had talked to the Marauder gang only once, in her first year, before deciding that she disliked them with very strong passion.  
  
**_Flashback  
_**  
_Lily walked onto the platform with her trolley in her hands frightened and nervous. Lily walked normally, looking around, pushing her cart towards the train before she—  
_  
_"Ow! Watch it!" yelled someone in front of her. Lily jumped as her cart had collided into a boy standing with an angry glare in his eyes.  
  
"S-sorry!" Lily murmured.  
  
Behind the boy stood his three friends all staring curiously at her with unreadable expressions. One smiled slyly looking back and forth from the boy who she had collided into to her.  
  
"You must be a muggleborn, right?" the boy in front of her asked, his features turned into a smile. "Hi, my name in James Potter!" he extended his hand and Lily took it.  
  
"My name is Lily Evans," Lily replied, her face flushing as the boy grinned wider.  
  
"My name is Sirius Black, but that's not going to stop the train!" yelled the boy who was smiling slyly behind James as the train began to move.  
  
"Let's go!" James grabbed Lily's trunk, hand, and ran for the train with Lily dangling like a chain on his arm. They all got on safely right before the train doors were locked. Lily catching her breath followed the boys looking for a compartment.  
  
The train was nearly empty and even though finding a compartment was easy, the boys went to the very back compartment. The other two boys that were behind James introduced themselves, as Remus Lupin, who Lily could guess was the sensible type, and Peter Pettigrew, who was nothing like the other boys.  
  
Lily sat down next to the window in front of James. She stared at the passing city and got bored when they came into the farms and pastures. Lily could see, from the corner of her eyes, James starring at her with a wide grin clearly visible on his face. The other boys were discussing something about a forest being forbidden.  
  
Lily sat quietly, pretending to not notice James's starring. Then, when she could no longer stand it anymore, she quietly whispered, "What?" so that only James could hear.  
  
James starred for another moment, and then got up motioning her to follow her. The other boys were so into their conversation, they didn't notice the two leaving quietly.  
  
Lily followed curiosity and fright eating her up inside. James led her into a small empty compartment and closed the door. Lily sat down stunned by this abnormal behavior.  
  
He sat down next to her and before she could say anything whispered, "You are so beautiful." He leaned in and closed the gap, kissing her, for her first true kiss.  
  
If Lily was ever shocked before in her life, it was nothing to how shocked she was now. It was a beautiful kiss, and when they parted, Lily was still closing her eyes. As reality kicked in, Lily stood by disgusted written all over her face. James got up to, messing up his already messy hair playfully and grinning at her flushed face.  
  
"Sorry! But you asked!" He grinned, reading her expression.  
  
Lily walked out still disgusted and shocked. She walked into their compartment, got her trunk out and had left without a word. She simply did not associated with people who, in her words, behaved so vulgarly.  
_  
**_Flashback  
_**  
But to her misfortune, the Marauders had been placed in Gryffindor, the same house as Lily and her friends. Although Lily chose to ignore them, her friends were not so out-going. Instead they, on purpose, fight against the Marauder gang and their reign over the entire female population at Hogwarts.  
  
Lily, as usual, had no time for her thoughts as the train came to a halt in front of the familiar Hogsmeade station. Piper, Lily, Grace and Diondra made their way slowly out of the train pushing and shoving through the crowd of students hurrying out also.  
  
It was dark outside, but Lily could see the dim outline of the enormous Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid. It was tradition for Hagrid to round up all the first years and take them to Hogwarts on the boats. But second years and up were to go on the mud-covered, horseless carriages.  
  
Lily walked over to the nearest carriage, her friends behind her, and got in. But to her surprise, there was someone already in there. Ray Chang, a sixth year Ravenclaw, was known for his stubbornness, bullying, and rude comments all over Hogwarts, but Lily couldn't believe how calm he was, staring at her, and almost a half smile on his face.  
  
Reality kicked in a moment later as Lily heard Ray's cronies trying to get in, "Sorry! I didn't that there was someone already here." Lily babbled nervously, with that, she slipped out before Ray had a chance to speak.  
  
Ray Chang sat stunned at the spot by the beauty of the girl who had apologized so sweetly. Ray blinked as he saw his friends climbing onto the carriage joking about something.  
  
"Who was the girl?" Ray hissed in, his best friend, Keane Ye's ear.  
  
"What girl?" Keane hissed back curiously. Keane, although not as good- looking as Ray, had ear length long hair and sparkling green eyes.  
  
"That girl, who was in here!" Ray questioned again, "You know, the one with the red hair!"  
  
This time a light had sparked in Keane's mind as he showed realization of what Ray was talking about on his face. "Oh! You mean, Lily Evans. Yeah! She is something really. She doesn't like anyone, but everyone likes her!" Keane had a dreamy expression on his face before he saw the death glare that Ray was giving him. "I wouldn't go for her though, she is too hard. I heard she is too stubborn." Keane warned.  
  
"Not for me! I am Ray Chang, I can make anyone fall in love with me and you'll see, Lily is going to be mine this year."  
  
Keane nodded his head in a mock-sarcastic grin on his face.  
  
Hogwarts looked just as pleasing as Lily remembered it. The Great Hall was decorated in all the houses colors and was filled with four long tables, which were allotted to the different houses.  
  
Lily and her friends seated themselves near the middle of the long Gryffindor table. Dumbledore, the headmaster, was seated in the front of the Hall at the teachers' table looking spectacular. Piper winked and gang Dumbledore a thumbs up, which he acknowledged with a nod. Piper and Dumbledore were very close, almost like father and daughter, Piper was the only student that Dumbledore talked to the way he did; so friendly and free.  
  
When everyone was settled down, Dumbledore got up with a goblet in his hand in motion to prepare toast, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!"  
  
Everyone in the hall cheered crazily, even the Slytherins. "Now, the sorting ceremony." Dumbledore sat down as the Great Hall doors opened and the first years came inside looking scared and nervous.  
  
Professor McGonagall, a strict Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, brought out the Sorting Hat. Professor McGonagall was the head of Gryffindor, she was also known for her strictness and fair attitude towards everyone. Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on a tall stool.  
  
Lily listened closely as the Sorting Hat broke into a new poem. The words were so cleverly written. As soon as the poem ended, the students started to applaud very impressed by the words.  
  
Professor McGonagall took out a roll of parchment and began calling out the kids one by one to come to the stool to be sorted into their houses. "Timothy Spall!"  
  
A small nosy looking boy with a smirk on his face came up and sat down on the stool, instantaneously the Sorting Hat barked, "Slytherin!"  
  
The Slytherin table welcomed their newest arrival with cheer. The rest of the tables waited quietly. Like this one by one, the hat sorted the students. At the end of the ceremony, Gryffindor had thirty-five new first- years sitting proudly at the table. Dumbledore stood up again to make his usual beginning-of-year comments. "There are a few things I would like to point out this year." The crowd stopped talking and all eyes were on Dumbledore. "As you all know, the Forbidden Forest is strictly forbidden." His eyes strayed over to the Marauder gang, who were all grinning broadly, "It goes for everyone, yes, even for you, Mr. Black." Sirius was pointing to himself questioningly mouthing 'me too?'  
  
"Another thing, Quidditch will start next month. For match details please consult your house heads." Dumbledore was quiet fond of Quidditch, the wizard sport, and mentioned it with the most significance. "The Head Boy and Girl are Caradoc Dearborn and Miranda Goshawk. Congratulations to both!"  
  
A boy and a girl stood up looking dignified with their Head Boy/Girl badges shining. Then they sat back down when Dumbledore spoke again, "Now, without further ado, let the feast begin!" As soon as he said those words, all the empty plates and goblets filled magically with delicious food. Lily, and her friends had not eaten at all in the train, so they bustled down as much as possible, talking and laughing joyfully.  
  
Lily was too engaged in her conversation to know, but by the corner of his eye, Ray was watching her amused while talking to his own friends.  
  
At the end of the feast they were all headed towards their house towers. Lily couldn't help but smile as she followed her friends looking at the moving paintings on the walls and waving happily to them.  
  
The password is "Wattlebird" yelled the house prefect, Remus Lupin. The portrait of the fat lady gave way and everyone went inside the Gryffindor common room. Lily, Piper, Grace and Diondra all went into their sixth year room. It was just the way Lily remembered. A huge window was at the end of the enormous room with six four-poster beds. Lily walked over to the bed nearest the window, spotting her stuff that had already been brought in.  
  
"Sleep, Lily?" Piper asked settling down on the bed next to Lily's. Lily turned around; Piper was already laying down changes in her nightclothes.  
  
"Yes, I am just going to change first." Lily got up and pulled out her truck looking for her nightclothes.  
  
"You guys are sleeping already?" Grace asked. "But it's only, oh, wow," Grace looked at the clock which read 10:54, "ok, got the point! Goodnight!" Grace pulled her bed curtains and changes inside.  
  
Diondra was already sleeping snoring nosily. Piper rolled her eyes, and got out her diary writing quickly, she noted down all the events from the train to the moment then. Lily walked in, changed in her nightclothes.  
  
"Night! Everyone!" Lily called out, as soon as she hit the sheets, she fell asleep.

* * *

"Rise and shine, Lily flower!" yelled Diondra stretching on her bed.  
  
Lily woke with a start and pulled her covers close to protest getting out, but when she saw the clock; she jumped and quickly got ready. By the time Lily was finished getting ready for the first day of school, the others were already dressed waiting for her, with all their stuff.  
  
"Well, you could have woken me up a little earlier!" cried Lily, reading Piper's face.  
  
Lily pulled out her books, quills and all her stuff, put it in her bag, and ran down the stairs with the others.  
  
The Great Hall was nearly empty. Piper was thinking the same thing as the others, "Where is everyone?" she turned around and questioned.  
  
"Are we late or early?" Diondra asked setting down her book bag.  
  
"Hey, Professor McGonagall?" Lily yelled puzzled to see her, "Shouldn't you be in class?"  
  
Professor McGonagall walked over to where they were standing and looked at the suspiciously. "Why no, why would I be in class, it's only 6:45, classes begin at 8:00."  
  
"What!" Diondra yelled, "Sorry, professor, we thought it was much later than that!"  
  
"No, I still have to get the schedules." Professor McGonagall walked away distractedly.  
  
Lily looked from one face to the other. "That messed by clock!" Grace cried. "It was wrong. Sorry, guys." The magical clock Grace owned was never on time, usually a little early, but today it was a lot early than expected.  
  
"It's okay! Not your fault." Diondra smiled nodding, "You guys want to go back to the common room?"  
  
"Sure, there is nothing for us to do here anyway." Piper said looking at Lily.  
  
"Actually, you go ahead. I think I am going to go walk around for a while." Lily stated simply.  
  
Grace, Piper, and Diondra didn't protest or argue with Lily, they went back to the Gryffindor common room, leaving Lily all alone.  
  
Lily headed outside to walk around the lake. The sun was already up halfway, as Lily made her way across the garden. Feeling tired, Lily set the heavy book bag and sat down by a tree near the lake.  
  
"Hi!" someone came up behind Lily smiling wide. It was Ray Chang, his white teeth glittering in the sunlight.  
  
"Hello." Lily said simply. "Sorry, again about the other day." She apologized remembering the encounter with Ray.  
  
Ray smiled, "Can I sit down?" he asked pointing to a place next to Lily.  
  
"Sure." Lily said, and Ray seated himself down on the grass leaning against the tree.  
  
For a long time, they sat in silence. Before he spoke up again, "So, you're a morning person too, huh?"  
  
"Not really, my friend has this crazy alert clock that tells the wrong time. Today we thought we were really late, but turns out, we are really early." Lily explained.  
  
After another awkward silence, Ray spoke up again, "Lily, will you be my girlfriend?"  
  
Lily wasn't expecting it. She didn't say anything. Instead, she got up, picked up her book bag and started walking away.  
  
"Hey! Lily!" Ray called after her. He was walking fast behind her to catch up. He reached out his arm and turned Lily over to face him by her shoulder. "Are you going to be my girlfriend?"  
  
Lily looked to the ground not able to think. All she wanted to do was get away, but Ray had a firm grip on her shoulder and didn't let her go. Lily shook her head, still staring at the ground. Ray ignored the answer straightening up; he looked at her one more time and let go. Lily wanted to run, but her feet were too frightened. She still kept looking at the ground; her bag on her shoulder was aching really badly.  
  
"Ok! I will give you time to think it over," Ray offered, "I will give you until 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. If you don't come and tell me that you will be my girlfriend and that you love me by then, then I will kill myself in front of the whole school and blame it one you."  
  
Lily looked up. Ray turned around and left leaving Lily with a messy mind. A single tear fell down her cheek, but she wiped it away. She was not going to give in to his threatens.  
  
The day had started off with a bad start, but that was nothing compared to how the rest of the day went. Lily met her friends in the Great Hall for breakfast, where they found out they had Potions first with the Slytherins and that mean, ugly, cruel, Professor Boggs. In Potions, Lily and her friends were separated, and Lily was seated next to a mean Slytherin boy named Malcolm Darcy, who kept smirking evilly at her. But Diondra had a fun time; she was placed next to Severus, who looked disgustedly at her while she gave him a dreamy look.  
  
Later she had luckily had her best subject, Charms, where she earned 20 extra points for Gryffindor.  
  
After Charms, however, came her worst subject, Transfiguration. As much as Lily hated admitting it, Transfiguration was her worst subject. Although she still came as one of the top students, she had to work twice as hard as everyone else to do so.  
  
Lunch was short. Lily couldn't eat anything. She, instead, went back to the Gryffindor tower and waited there until time for Transfiguration.  
  
Nothing was scheduled after Transfiguration, so Lily and her friends, who were all amazed at the amount of homework they had been given, decided to retire to the library to get a head start.  
  
"I can't believe that Boggs! He assigned us 5 essays! All 3 feet long! That is crazy! And it's due the next class period!" Diondra exclaimed her shock.  
  
"Well, at least we only have a couple of classes a day now." Piper shrugged looking sympathetically at Diondra. Grace was walking in front with Lily, who seemed to be drowned in her own thoughts to pay attention.  
  
Her friends were too absorbed to notice. They had been used to Lily not talking much and thought that she must thinking about something. In the library, the girls found and empty table and finished their homework hastily. Diondra wrote in huge letters while the others wrote in small print. By the time they finished it was already dinner. Feeling tired, and Diondra rubbing her forehead, the friends made their way to the Great Hall for dinner.  
  
Dinner was as welcoming as ever, as they were starved. Lily ate less than everyone else; somehow, she wasn't as hungry as she thought she was.  
  
They went back to the Gryffindor tower when finished. Lily retired to bed, while Piper scribbled in her diary and Grace challenged Diondra to a game of wizard's chess. Sulking about her horrible first day of school, Lily fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning was the same thing, only new classes. In a flash, it was only just 15 minutes before 1:30. Lily looked like she was going to regurgitate her lunch, butterflies churned in her stomach. Her friends realizing her dullness pulled Lily into a nearby empty classroom.  
  
"Lily, sorry, but you have been acting strange lately. What's wrong?" Grace asked in her sweet soothing voice.  
  
Lily looked sadly down at the floor and told them about the events with Ray Chang.  
  
They all, too, were as startled as she was. Piper smiled at Lily understandingly.  
  
"Lily, that's a good thing, isn't it?"  
  
"What?" Lily exclaimed.  
  
"I mean, Ray is a really nice, good-looking guy. Why not go out with him?" Piper continued.  
  
"Well, because, maybe I don't care about him!" Lily yelled for no reason. "And now he is threatening me that he is going to kill himself if I don't start being his girlfriend!" Lily broke out into tears, and Grace patted her shoulder comfortingly.  
  
"Lily, why not?" Diondra asked thinking about it. "You always said, that the first guy you tell 'I love you' to will be the guy for you. If he said that he would die if you didn't like him, it means that he really loves you."  
  
"But he barely knows me!" Lily said; she had stopped crying.  
  
"Love doesn't have a reason!" Diondra said her all famous line cheerfully. "Sometimes, you can look at a person and know it's that one special someone."  
  
Lily nodded agreeing with Diondra, who was in her mind right. Lily had always wanted to love someone, and maybe since Ray said that he was going to die if she said 'no', then it just had to mean that he really did love her. Lily blushed realizing her answer to him for the first time. Lily looked at the clock in the classroom, right before she heard a shrilling scream from outside the room.  
  
Lily didn't have time to thank her friends; she only had 5 minutes before 1:30. Lily quickly ran outside thinking where might Ray be at this time, but from outside the castle she could hear a girl's voice yelling loudly, "Ray, come down here, she is not going to come! Ray, don't do it!"  
  
Lily ran in the direction of the voice, which led her outside. The girl noticed Lily coming and yelled, "She is coming! Don't drink that!" up to Ray. The girl was Sandra Bennett, a sixth year, and a rather bossy Ravenclaw.  
  
Outside was a gathering of all students even the Slytherins looking up at Ray on top of the roof with a poison bottle dangerously close to his lips.  
  
Lily couldn't think, she was being dragged to the front of the bunch of people. Her friends were lost somewhere in the crowd and now she needed them the most.  
  
Ray stood on top of the roof stubbornly. No teacher was outside; all students were watching, some girls were begging for Lily to tell him 'I love you'.  
  
"Tell him! Just tell him! Please!" yelled Sarah Bennett in Lily's ear. Sarah was the twin sister of Sandra.  
  
Lily feeling a moment of blind passion coming on, as she thought quickly one more time about her policy and the guy she was going to devote her life to. But the crowd grew rowdier, pushing and shoving her to tell him already.  
  
Lily frozen found her voice and whispered, "I love you." And then again, liking the sound, Lily quickly yelled, "I LOVE YOU, RAY CHANG!" Lily smiled and closed her eyes. On top of the roof, she could see Ray smiling too; he left to come down the stairs.  
  
James Potter watched at the girl he adored for six years yelling 'I love you' up to a guy who knew nothing about her. He leaned against the wall observing her closely. _Lily, Lily, what have you done! _James knew Lily, and he knew her policy by heart too. She was going to stick to one guy once she declared. Sirius watched on in awe, as James just stood there not doing anything except stare at the one thing he wanted most, becoming someone else's. James had been in love with Lily ever since he saw her, even though he didn't tell her, he was in love. He watched her day and night, calling her name in his sleep, but now, was that all over?  
  
"What are you going to do now, James?" Sirius whispered.  
  
James didn't say anything, he was watching Ray come down the stairs and embrace Lily in a tightly. He then turned to Sirius and smiled. "You'll see!" was all he said. He walked away from the scene shrugging and smiling to himself.  
  
**Was that okay? Tell me! Review please!  
  
I want people to understand that Lily is really committed to her relationship with Ray. Next chapter will have a lot more James and the whole Marauder gang. As for James, does he give up on her? The answer will be in the next chapter!  
  
Thanks to all those who review and encourage me to write quickly; I might not be able to update right now, because I am moving, I can probably update in a week or two.  
  
Dinis **


	2. He Smiles For Unknown Reasons

**Hi! Welcome to the second chapter. It was lots of fun for me to write this chapter. I just hope that you have fun reading it. Thank you so much. Please read and review, I get encouraged to write faster that way. **

**You have to understand one more thing before you proceed with the story, and that is the fact that Lily truly believes that she is in love with Ray, so whatever he says and does, she still thinks she loves him. James...well, he is another story. **

**Sumrandumperson has pointed out one mistake in my summary. I apologize for the mistake. The lh actually was supposed to be l/h (love/hate). I hope that clarifies any misunderstanding. As I am only human, I will make many more mistakes and I would really like it if you pointed them out to me so that I may correct them next time. Thanks sumrandumperson!**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own any characters that you may recognize in the story; they all belong to JK Rowling and her brilliant mind. **

**R/r please!!!**

Chapter 2: He Smiles For Unknown Reasons

James sat in the common room thinking about the afternoon's events. Lily had just declared, in front of many people, that she loved Ray Chang. James smiled for unknown reasons, before he got up, and went up to the boy's dorm room without even acknowledging his friends, who were sitting in the common room observing him.

"Why was he smiling?" Sirius asked Remus confusedly after James left the room.

Remus shook his head getting up to stretch his arms and legs. They had been sitting there, paying close attention to James for the past four hours; waiting to see if James would say anything to them, but he only smiled insanely and kept his thoughts to himself.

"My personal guess," Remus began, sitting back down on the sofa, "is that he has lost all sanity." Remus frowned and looked at Peter, who was still thinking.

Sirius looked sarcastically, "Like he ever had any sanity! I told him that Lily would be tough, but did he listen to me? NO!" Remus smiled at Sirius's frustration, and Sirius continued more seriously, "I am always supposed to know what he is thinking and I am proud to say that I most of the time do, but I am just not getting him these days. It's killing me."

"I guess we will just have to wait and watch." Peter squeaked when all talk had seized.

Feeling tired and confused, the rest of the Marauder gang retired to their dorm to find James sleeping soundly; but still baffled and scratching their heads in utter confusion, Remus, Sirius, and Peter fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

"Lily! Hurry up!" Diondra yelled impatiently as Lily held up her pointy-finger in motion and mouthing 'one minute' while she frantically looked for her brush.

Lily's friends waited for Lily standing near the door, as Lily scuttled around faster and faster looking for the perfect of everything she had. Lily was taking extra time getting ready for school that morning; she wanted to look her best for her new found love.

After another ten minutes of Diondra screaming with all her lungs and Lily brushing vigorously, the four girls made their entrance into the Great Hall for a quick breakfast before their classes.

Lily, Piper, Grace and Diondra abandoned the Gryffindor table and went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Lily seated herself next to Ray looking hopefully around and nodding to his friends.

"Hi, Ray!" Lily greeted sweetly with a smile.

"Hey, Lily!" Ray responded looking bored. "You look good." He stated simply without smiling.

Lily looked disappointed, but only for a second. Instantly, breakfast was magically before her. Lily was helping herself to a stack of pancakes when suddenly Ray caught her hand in midair right before the stack of pancakes hit her plate. Lily looked at Ray questioningly and Ray looked at her disapprovingly, before he changed his expression to a grieve smile.

"What?" Lily asked confused. Ray was still holding her hand in midair.

"Nothing, well, I thought, no, just forget it." Ray let go of the her hand, stood up pulling his book-bag over his shoulder and turned to leave; behind him, his friends were getting up and heading out with him. Ray turned back in mid-step towards the door, he looked at Lily and smiled sympathetically again, "Lily, it's just, maybe you should go on a diet."

For a moment, Lily thought she was in one of her nightmares; she looked hurt and embarrassed. Piper was about to say something in her defense, but Lily put her hand up stopping Piper. "He is right." Lily stated then turned to Ray and smiled, pulling back her tears, "You are right! I should, I don't want to get to beefy. Right?" Lily pushed the pancakes away and gulped down her pumpkin juice.

Ray left grinning happily, his book-bag swinging behind him.

James was sitting at the Gryffindor table holding his goblet full of pumpkin juice as tightly as possible without breaking it and wishing that it were Ray's neck instead. He had seen the entire incident, and stayed calm, restraining his anger.

Classes were scheduled to begin right after breakfast, so Lily and her friends, Diondra stopping to blow a kiss at Snape, left in a hurry for their first class of Wednesday: Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins.

James picked up his book bag setting down the empty goblet and walked outside following Lily and her friends closely, yet keeping out of sight. Sirius, Remus and Peter followed behind, watching James attentively, and heading towards their Care of Magical Creatures Outdoor classroom, which was near the forbidden forest.

James could see Lily's friends torturing her with questions and comments.

"THAT GOOD-FOR-NOTHING JERK!" Piper's voice was loud and angry, "HOW DARE HE? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?" Piper usually never got angry; she was very patient and calm even in the toughest times, but seeing her yelling manically was a shock to everyone.

"WHAT WAS HE THINKING? HE IS AN IDIOT LILY! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM! HE WAS LYING, YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL, HE IS JUST TOO BLIND TO SEE IT!" this time it was Diondra who was yelling madly about Ray's comment.

"Right, don't listen to him, Lily. You are beautiful, and if he can't see it, then he needs to get his eyes checked." Grace patted Lily's shoulder comfortingly while Diondra and Piper nodded, both calming down.

Lily didn't say anything; she was so disappointed in Ray's behavior towards her. Although he had stated that she looked good, it had not been what Lily was expecting him to say; she had hoped for more enthusiasm. Lily started forcing all her thoughts to focus on her upcoming class with Professor Kettleburn, who was tough but fair.

James watched Lily admiringly; he truly loved her. Sirius saw the look on James's face, rolled his eyes, and impatiently walked over to where the girls were standing. Everyone was almost there, and Professor Kettleburn could be seen squinting over fairly large bush shaking his head, while holding his glasses.

"Hi Diondra!" Sirius smiled playfully. Remus and Peter were standing, both waving to the girls with huge grins on their faces.

Diondra frowned at the sight of Sirius, the last time they had spoken was on the train, and she still had not recovered from the insulting comment that he had made; nevertheless, she greeted the boys well.

James waited another moment before walking over to them himself. He greeted Diondra, Grace and Piper impressively, and turned to Lily.

"Hi Lily." James smiled his famous-girl-charming smile, "How are you?" He asked his grin grew wider when he saw the shocked look on Lily's face.

Lily flushed scarlet red; she wasn't expecting him to talk to her. Things were always tense between them and James never talked much, not to her at least. But now, James was talking to her as if they were old-time-buddies.

Lily half-smiled recovering from her shock, "Hi James! I am doing okay. You?"

But James didn't have time to answer, a long bang shot out from Professor Kettleburn's wand signaling the students that class was then beginning.

"Hello class!" Professor Kettleburn looked at the students with a sad smile. To his disappointment, the class was split into two different groups; on the right side stood a happy-good-looking group, and on the left stood a nasty-grumpy group picking their noses. "Right then," Professor Kettleburn said tonelessly nodding his head with a sad smile. It would have been a lie if he said that he was not expecting any sort of separation between the Slytherins and Gryffindors, after all, the two houses were archenemies.

Professor Kettleburn sat on a large rock and observed the students for another moment, then sighed, and began weakly, "Since it is just the first day of class, I thought we should begin with a quick review." His voice droned on getting weaker and quieter so the students had to perk their ears and listen more closely, "I have brought a young phoenix today," He backed away a couple of steps to show the pinkish red phoenix sitting on the low branch of a huge tree. "Would anyone like to volunteer to tell us something about the creature?" Professor Kettleburn looked around hopefully before spotting a bravely raised hand among the good-looking kids. "James Potter, please!"

James walked over to the phoenix, recognizing it as Fawkes, Dumbledore's favorite pet. He had seen the phoenix on a number of occasions in Dumbledore's office and it had seen him.

"Right, James, please tell us something about phoenixes."

James looked at the creature, affectionately stroking its feathers. He looked at the class and began to talk about the phoenix in the same rapturous tone, "Phoenixes are fascinating creatures. They may not look dangerous or powerful, but they have a beak that can crush through thick hide and the ability to carry up to 10 times their weight. Not only that, but their tears have healing powers." James stopped to look at the phoenix, before walking back to the students who looked both dull and unimpressed.

"Excellent Mr. Potter!" Professor Kettleburn beamed at his best student. "Take 20 points for Gryffindor for a fantastic explanation of phoenix's characteristics. You are by far, if I may say so, the best student I have ever had!"

James Potter was the most intelligent student in the entire school. He was excellent and perfect in every subject, especially Transfiguration. Even though he never stepped into a Library, he still scored high in the exams. The other Marauders were the same way, all highly intelligent. But the only subject the James always placed second in was Charms, whose top student was Lily.

Lily frowned when she heard Professor Kettleburn's last comment about James being the best student. Although James and her never talked there was no denial to how much competition there was between them. Lily looked at the hard, dirty ground drowning through what Professor Kettleburn was saying. Her eyes, then, strayed onto a guy standing near the back of the classroom with his friends; he had messy black hair, circle glasses, and melting-hazel eyes...Lily looked away, quickly when he turned and grinned at her.

Lily looked at her open Magical Creatures book, scanning her eyes back and forth pretending to read when all her thoughts were on James. _Why did he talk to me? Why was looking at me? NO! He was not looking at me, I was looking at him and **then** he looked at me!_

James was staring at Lily like he always did. He had completely zoned out Professor Kettleburn's lecture about phoenix's reproduction system. _She was looking at me! She was looking at me! SHE WAS LOOKING AT ME! _James said the same thing over and over in his brain not able to contain his happiness.

* * *

"Brilliant class! Wasn't it, Dia?" Sirius asked in mock-excitement. The class was over and they were all walking back to the castle.

"Brilliant would not have been the word I would have chosen, but then again, 'brilliant' is quite close to the 'boring' that I had in mind." Diondra tried to lose Sirius by walking faster, but he easily kept up with her.

Diondra and Sirius walked in front while Peter trailed close behind Sirius like a tail. Remus and Grace were talking about their next class after lunch, History of Magic with the Ravenclaws, while Piper quietly listened to them arguing about the importance of Goblin independence. That left Lily and James to walk at the back, listening to all of the conversations. They were all heading to the Great Hall. Lily pondered her brain for something to say as an awkward silence continued between them. _Say something...anything!_ Her brain screamed inside.

_It would be impolite to not say anything! _James walked next to Lily, his brain going through every piece of information that he had and trying to decide what to say.

"So," Lily began to his surprise, "Do you like magical creatures?" Lily blushed stupidly.

James smiled and nodded, "Yes, my family owns many magical animals, we own 2 phoenixes, an Augurey, about 13 pixies, many owls and not to forget a stag."

"A stag? Really?" Lily asked. She had never known anything about James, other than what he displayed at school, but she was not surprised. James came from a wealthy pureblood family. In fact all of the Marauders were from wealthy pureblood families, and Piper was too from a wealthy pureblood family.

"Yes, we call him Prongs. He is very handsome, clever, and quite the ladies man."

Lily chuckled at the description. "Wow! I would like to see him."

James didn't say anything. They were now only a couple of yards away from the castle. Behind them were a group of Slytherins commenting rather loudly than usual about the Marauders and whom they were associating with.

Severus Snape, with an ugly disorientated face and greasy hair was standing at the front of the group, pulled out his wand and ranted, "I never believed that James Potter was as smart as he claimed he was, but I never doubted, until now, if he had any sense or not. Seems like poor Potter is a lot more dumber than he looks." A loud howl of laughter followed, and this time it was Lucius Malfoy's turn to speak foully.

Lucius Malfoy, or better known as Malfoy, was a dark wizard. He was a wealthy pureblood, and was rather proud of his heritage, almost too much. He had shoulder-length blonde hair and piercing cold blue eyes. "You're right, Severus!" He began, stopping to make sure that James and the other Gryffindors in front were listening, "That has to be the reason why he is associating with that ugly mudblood!"

Sirius stopped in mid track hearing the cruel joke that Lucius made, he turned around, forcing everyone to turn with him and face the Slytherins. He walked up to where James and Lily were standing, his wand pointing dangerously at Snape and Lucius; but James didn't say anything.

Lucius saw the wand in Sirius's hand and the glare of madness in James's eyes and drew back. Remus and Peter were waiting for something to happen.

Snape didn't move, he had a nasty-winning grin on his face and he spoke calmly, "What now, Black, are you defending your good-for-nothing friend?" Snape looked behind Sirius and saw Diondra and Grace standing outraged. "Well, I don't think you should waste your energy trying to help these mudbloods, not talking about Piper of course." Snape beamed at Piper and Piper looked away disgusted.

Diondra walked closer to the front of the group, seeing the look that Snape was giving Piper sickened her. She looked from Snape to Piper, who was staring at the ground.

Diondra spoke up feeling the moment, "Oh! Snapey! How long has it been since I talked to you!"

Snape saw the huge mock-flirting grin that Diondra always gave him and faltered. His expression read 'disgusted', but Diondra was certainly not seeing it.

Instead she kept going on, "I know, baby!" She yelled walking closer to the Snape, "Too long!" With that she threw her arms around Snape and instantly planted her lips on him.

One kiss was enough to lose the Slytherins, as Snape pulled away from Diondra and quickly walked away murmuring something about 'mudblood tongues and how he had to wash his mouth now'.

Diondra turned around to face her friends, Sirius's jaw was open wide from shock, Grace began to giggle, and Lily and Piper looked too bewildered to speak as James and Remus looked confused and Peter looked like he couldn't care less.

"Close your mouth, Sirius." Diondra walked over to him and pushed his jaw up with her finger. Sirius jumped out of his shock and looked at her admiringly.

"I did it! I did it! I really, really did it!" Diondra smiled, as she pushed past everyone and hugged Grace, who was still giggling. "Your plan worked! I am so loving you right now, Gracie!" Diondra jumped up and down excitedly.

It took a moment for Lily to remember Grace and Diondra's conversation on the train. Lily smiled and hugged Diondra, who hugged her back tightly still excited.

"Why did you kiss him?" Sirius asked scratching his head.

"I love him, silly!" Diondra yelled and began jumping up and down again with her two hands held up to her mouth.

"Oh? Really?" Sirius was still in shock. Although he knew that Diondra liked Snape, he had never believed it, but now, all he could do was doubt if he was right or not.

No one saw Sirius's face fall as Lily, Piper and Grace listened attentively as Diondra explained how passionate the kiss was. The Great Hall smelled more inviting than Lily could ever remember, having not eaten anything since breakfast, her stomach growled ordering her eat. She immediately looked for Ray at the Ravenclaw table, but he was missing and neither were his friends.

Sighing, Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table. A delicious steak appeared before her, she dug her fork in to eat when she suddenly remembered the conversation with Ray. Piper was eyeing Lily very angrily, when put her fork down and just drank her juice instead.

The Marauders were sitting next to the girls. James was observing Lily through the corner of his eyes, Sirius was thinking about Diondra, Remus was still partly arguing with Grace, and Peter was eating excessively fast.

When Lily finished her pumpkin juice, she just sat there watching everyone eating the food hungrily.

"Lily, eat something, please?" Piper said blandly.

Lily looked at Piper sadly, "I am sorry, I can't. I love Ray."

James found his anger rising again at the thought of Ray, but he didn't say anything. Sirius saw the anger in James's eyes and nodded to him calmly.

The rest of lunch was eaten with silence and angry, confused, and hungry looks.

* * *

The warning bell rang more loudly than ever as the eight Gryffindors ran to History of Magic. They walked in through the door right as the tardy bell rang. The good thing about this class was that it was with the Ravenclaws. Lily instantly spotted Ray sitting at the front of the class. Ray motioned her to come sit by him, and she did as she was told, abandoning her friends with an apologetic look. Piper looked absolutely outraged.

The other Gryffindors sat at the back of the classroom together in the remaining seats.

"Hi, Ray!" Lily greeted sitting down next to him.

He beamed at her pleasantly. "You look absolutely marvelous!" The way he said it made Lily's stomach clench. A sudden odor had come out of his mouth. It was the smell of firewhiskey. Lily tried not to look disturbed as Ray went on in an alcoholic fashion. "I want you!" He spoke lazily drooping on her, half asleep.

"Ray?" Lily bit her lip as she watched him lean against her shoulder and close his eyes, "Where you drinking?"

Ray's eyes suddenly opened wide and he looked at her madly. "THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, YOU WRETCHED GIRL!" he yelled, attracting the attention of the class. Lily's cheeks flushed the color of roses and tears began to appear in her eyes. Ray swooped back down as the silver-colored Professor came into the classroom filling it with an icy touch.

Professor Binns entered through the front blackboard rubbing his glasses with his transparent shirt and holding his briefcase with his left hand. He looked as boring as the subject. He looked at the class sitting with their heads on their desk. His eyes found his favorite student, James sitting at the very back with his group of friends. Professor Binns beamed at the class, and began to talk in a boring fashion.

James pretended to pay attention about the Goblin Rebellions of 1707, but his mind was fully fixed on Lily and whom she was sitting next to. _How dare he yell at her! _James crunched up the parchment in his hand attracting the attention of his friends.

"What are you doing?" Sirius whispered, his eyes not leaving Professor Binns as he leaned next to his friend.

When Professor Binns walked over to the board to write notes, Sirius stole a glance at James, and then to what he was looking at. Lily was sitting in the front of the classroom with Ray snoring loudly on her shoulder. She was copying notes hurriedly from the board. "We will get him, Prongs. We will get him." Sirius whispered.

James looked away and looked at his friends (Remus, Peter and Sirius). "Tonight, the Marauders are going on a Ravenclaw raid!" His voice was dangerously low. The others nodded their heads, and Sirius smiled mischievously.

* * *

The class was over as quickly as it had started. One by one, the students piled out of the classroom. Ray's weight was breaking Lily's back, she way holding him up before she dropped unable to bear his weight. Someone behind her came up and gave her a hand lifting her up off the floor. It was Keane Ye, and the other Ravenclaws standing behind him.

Ray was sprawled on the floor snoring loudly. Lily looked tiredly at Keane and he understood. "Don't worry, Lily, we will take it from here." Keane motioned the other Ravenclaws to pull Ray up and help him out of the classroom. Lily followed up to the Ravenclaw staircase where she parted quickly to go to her last class of the day: Divination.

_I hope he will be all right. _Lily couldn't help but worry as she headed for the Divination tower. She made a mental note to herself to talk to Ray about his drinking.

Lily was so consumed in her thoughts she didn't even notice the figure that she had painfully pushed to the ground and landed on top of. Lily met James's chocolate-like hazel eyes. As reality kicked in, Lily quickly got up, "S-sorry! I am so sorry. I wasn't paying attention." James was sitting up on his elbows staring at Lily with a flirtatious grin spreading on his face.

James extended a hand motioning her to help him up and Lily did. Lily blushed seeing the look on James's face. She found the ground more interesting than his admiring eyes.

James chuckled, "We should run, we are going to be late for class."

Lily smiled, and James held out his hand friendly. Lily took it and they began to run down the hall as another warning bell rang loudly.

James and Lily walked into the Divination classroom where the spunky looking Professor Trelawney was standing at the front taking attendance. Her eyes narrowed when she saw James and Lily, "You are late." She spoke strictly. "The punishment for being late is detention! Now, take your seats!"

James and Lily looked somber and sat down together on the left side of the classroom. The divination classroom was something out of ordinary. It was filled with mystical things, but poor Professor hadn't a clue how to use them.

Sirius, Remus, Peter, Diondra, Grace and Piper were sitting on the other side eyeing the couple curiously. James smiled playfully at Sirius and he smiled back a glint visible in his eyes.

Professor Trelawney began speaking about their new lesson, "Now class, I understand that you may not be as advanced as me in reading tarot cards, but I want you to try you best and I will help you when I can." She pointed the set of cards on every table, "I will also be pairing up with a person that you have to work with for the rest of the year in order to improve your seeing senses." She looked at her clipboard eyeing the class.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, hmmm, let's see..." Professor Trelawney looked thoughtfully over her clipboard and an idea popped into her head and a grin spread across her face, "With Lily Evans, of course!" Lily looked absolutely disgusted from her head to toe.

Besides having detention, being the star-wanna-be's partner was much worse. Gilderoy waved to her a flirtatiously grin spreading across his face. His teeth were yellow and crooked, but all Lily could do was sympathetically smile back. James began to chuckle, and Lily glared at him apparently not amused.

"Shut it, Potter!" she whispered in his ear. As if on cue, Professor Trelawney began pairing again, this time much faster. "James Potter with Jacqueline Wolfe!"

A Hufflepuff, blonde haired girl squeaked happily as her name was called out. She waved at James and James nodded seriously. This time it was Lily's turn to laugh, but James didn't get mad, instead he stared at her his admiring eyes on again and made her blush.

"I want Sirius Black with Colette Young! Remus Lupin with Brynn Gatewood! Peter Pettigrew with Lauren Graves! Jacob Broom with Piper Colvard! Grace Kim with Reese Jackson! Diondra Davis with Amos Diggory!" Professor Trelawney's paused to catch her breath; she looked up to see the disgusted faces on the Marauders, except for Sirius, and Diondra looked like she was going to regurgitate last month's mashed potatoes. Professor Trelawney frowned and continued, "All of you must plan to meet at least three times a week to read your tarot cards. You will each have a report on what your future says in a calendar."

Everyone in class looked utterly bored and uninterested. James kept stealing glances at Lily and Lily blushed furiously glaring back at him.

Class was over with a big speech on the importance of tarot cards that Sirius had fell asleep through. The end of class bell rang more pleasantly that Lily had ever remembered. The Gryffindors left the tower gratefully heading towards the Great Hall. Classes for the day were over and Lily couldn't wait to get something to eat, seeing she hadn't eaten anything the entire day.

The Marauders accompanied the girls. Lily had forgotten all about Ray and the condition he was in that morning. She was now playfully flirting with the one boy that she had despised.

"James, stop don't!" Lily yelled as James pulled her book bag off her shoulder and carried it with ease.

"Don't worry, Lils! It's not a problem for our Jamesie!" Sirius voice mockingly came from the front of the group. James scowled at Sirius that shut Sirius up, and then he looked at Lily with his boyish charm.

"Lily, honestly, you are getting thinner by the day! You should eat more, you know. Until you don't improve your diet, I am going to carry around your books even you if you don't listen to me." James voice was more serious, yet you couldn't tell he was indirectly telling her to forget about what happened with Ray.

Lily suddenly remembered about Ray, but before she could say anything, they had reached the Great Hall. Surprisingly standing there was none other than: Ray with his cronies.

When Ray spotted Lily in the back of the group, he stretched his arms wide and called out, "Lily!"

Lily heard a voice that was semi-familiar in front of her. A strong-good looking boy had come by to her and embraced her tightly. Lily recognized Ray after a moment. He pulled away from the hug, and stared at Lily.

"I am so sorry, Lily! I love you so much. I love you so much..." He hugged her again unsure of what he was doing.

Lily didn't say anything. At that moment her brain pounded her to say something back, but her heart told her not to. Ray pulled away from the hug and looked around at the group of Gryffindors. James was standing by the side as-if someone had buried him alive. Sirius and the others were looking mutual.

Ray acknowledged them boringly and looked back at Lily. His hands did not leave her shoulders. "I want you to come with me..." Ray whispered rather loudly. "I want you to come with me tonight and..." his voice faltered, and Lily looked confused.

"Why, Ray?" She asked her voice as low as his. The others' eyes were still on them looking curious.

"Because I want you to!" Ray's voice began to get louder and anger was visible quickly.

"I can't, sorry." Lily stated stubbornly, "I have to go do my homework."

"But Keane can do it for you, you will have the time of your life! I want you to come with me!" Ray began to yell.

James wanted to leap on top of and pound Ray as hard as he could for yelling but Sirius was pulling his silently back.

"I can't, Ray!" Lily said stubbornly still looking very calm and yet annoyed by Ray's behavior.

"YOU HAVE TO!" Ray began to pull Lily with him. He had a firm grip on her arm and Lily was struggling to go free, then suddenly from behind them all—

"Let her go, Mr. Chang." It was James's voice, but it was so calm and low that Lily had to really stay focused to hear what he was saying, "Please, let go of her, Mr. Chang." He repeated again grabbing a hold of Lily's other hand and pulling her away from Ray.

Lily was so surprised, she couldn't say anything, and she felt humiliated and embarrassed

"SHE IS MINE, POTTER!" yelled Ray, "I CAN DO WITH HER AS I PLEASE!"

Ray's friends came close behind him ready for a fight.

"Lily is a person. She is not yours until you start treating her with some respect." Diondra spoke disgustedly.

"And I suppose you would be the one to give me lessons in this matter. I heard what you did to that poor Snape. Tease him lot, don't you? And now, are you going to tell me that you're giving him respect?" Ray's voice was cruel, cold and questioning.

"Look, Ray, I love Severus, and that is something, that I don't need to prove to you!" Diondra walked furiously into the Great Hall, and Sirius ran after her.

Lily's brain was pounding. She could say anything. Lily bit her lip and looked up into Ray's eyes. _Ray seems so tempered...why?_ She thought staring at the floor. _I suppose love drives you insane; in any case, I must learn to get along with him. I love Ray. I told everyone that I did. I have to love Ray. I do love Ray! _The last part she thought doubtfully.

"Lily, say something! Tell this, Potter, that you are mine!" Ray demanded shaking her out of her thoughts.

Lily looked up again avoiding James's eyes. "Look, Ray, I am really tired. I am yours, and you know that. Can we just forget about it and go have dinner?"

Ray smiled triumphantly, forgetting the real reason why the fight had begun, and led Lily away from James to the Ravenclaw table. James was still holding her book bag. James smiled, again for unknown reasons.

Remus put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "So, any ideas for the Ravenclaw raid tonight?"

"THAT POTTER! HE DRIVES ME COMPLETELY BOLLOCKS! Why does he care so much about you anyway?" Ray thought more to himself. Lily let herself he dragged away from James and the others to the Ravenclaw table. Lily was hardly paying attention to what Ray was saying.

"Maybe he..." a wild thought came into Ray's mind; he looked at Lily doubtfully and then shook his head in his foolishness. _There is no way! The most desired guy in all of Hogwarts would ever go for a girl like Lily. _

He sat down, followed by his friends and Lily at last. "Eat something light!" he ordered.

Lily ate the salad and drank her pumpkin juice. Her stomach growled loudly, but Ray didn't hear it. Ray was too busy talking to his friends to pay attention to Lily.

James, Remus, Piper and the remaining others were sitting at the Gryffindor table. James was still smiling crazily and staring at Lily, undetected.

Diondra, Piper and Grace were talking about the way Lily was behaving. But they didn't notice Sirius, Remus and Peter whispering away about what to pull on the Ravenclaws.

"We will need many dungbombs!" Sirius whispered. Remus nodded and added 'dungbombs' to a quite lengthy list of supplies needed for the raid.

"We don't need anything." James whispered, turning away from Lily.

"What?!" Sirius asked disappointment coming into his features. "You mean we are not going to do the raid?!"

"No, we are definitely doing the raid. But if we use all these things, they will know it's us. We have to use our brains; we can only use the pranking spells." James seriously stated.

"Why don't you want them to know it's us?" Peter asked confused.

"Because, pee-brain!" Remus began irritated by Peter's thick questions. "He doesn't want Lily to know he cares about her!"

"And another thing, I won't be able to come with you on the raid." James said again, looking again. "I have something to take care of."

Sirius began to protest before looking at James was staring at and understood what he had to 'take care of'.

Dinner was over quickly, the Marauders escorted the girls to the Gryffindor tower. In the common room, Sirius played exploding snap with Remus, Peter, and Diondra, while Piper, Grace and James worked as quickly as possible to finish their homework.

An hour later, the exploding snap game stopped being fun and crossed the borderline to boredom. The magic clock on top of the fireplace read 8:30. It was way past curfew and Lily was nowhere to be found where she was supposed to be. James didn't look too worried. He instead concentrated on his essay.

Piper put her quill down and sighed, "Where is Lily? It is past curfew, she is never this late! James, I am worried!"

James looked up from his essay, but didn't say anything. Piper could see that he was thinking the same thing although he didn't look like it.

"What do reckon we should do?" Diondra came and sat down on the couch beside Piper, and so did the others who were playing exploding snap.

"Should we look for her?" Sirius asked James.

James shook his head, "Lily can take care of herself...besides...I think we should trust Ray once in awhile."

"What do you mean?" Piper questioned.

"I mean I doubt if he even pays attention to her." James explained turning back to his essay.

The others looked unsatisfied but didn't say anything.

Another hour passed, but Lily was not back yet. Everyone began to worry now, everyone that is except for James, who sat rooted to the stop finishing his essay.

"James, we should really--" Diondra began before the portrait hole opened wide and a girl in tears came running in like her hair was on fire. Instantly, without even acknowledging her friends, Lily headed for the girls' dorm.

The other girls ran after her. James didn't look up from his essay; he didn't even look up when Sirius gave him a questioning look.

"Lily, what happened? Please tell us!" Diondra pleaded at Lily's bed. Lily was collapsed on her bed crying into her pillow.

"What happened?" Piper asked concerned sitting on Lily's bed and putting at hand on her shoulder.

"He loves me. Ray loves me, I know he does." Lily mumbled getting up from her pillow to wipe off her tears.

"What?" exclaimed Piper, "What do you mean 'he loves you'?"

"Besides the literal meaning, that is?" Diondra added.

"He loves me, I know he does!" Lily said again stubbornly. She refused to say anything more than that. After ten minutes of Grace, Piper, and Diondra pleading for her to say something else, Diondra went downstairs shaking her head concerned.

Diondra found Sirius, Peter, James and Remus still there.

"What happened?" James asked, unusually concern in his eyes surprised Diondra.

"She says nothing." Diondra simply stated. "I think Ray might have done something to her."

"No," James shook his head. "I put a curse on him so that he wouldn't."

"What curse?" Sirius asked excitedly, "I knew you must have done something, or else, you wouldn't have been that brave. Especially because it's Li—Ow!" Remus hit Sirius in the back of the head to make him stop. "Oh! Sorry!" Sirius whispered reading the look on Remus's face.

But Diondra hadn't noticed anything; she was waiting for James to speak.

"I turned him gay for the night." James smiled.

"You can do that?" Diondra asked shocked.

"Yes, it's a simple curse. He must have acted really mean to her. That's why she is hurt. At least he didn't do anything to her physically."

Diondra looked like she was going to kiss James. She leaped happily. "You are the bomb, James!" she ran up the stairs to inform the others.

"You stag!" Remus put a hand on James's shoulder.

James turned around and nodded.

Lily lie awake listening to the night sounds. The crickets were chirping, the wolves were howling, and the owls were owling. She tried to take her mind off the event that took place that night, but it was too hard to.

Her mind lingered over and over onto Ray and how he behaved so vulgarly.

_**Flashback **_

_Lily watched her friends leave the Great Hall with the Marauders. There was barely anyone left in the Great Hall. Most students had retired either to the Library to finish their homework or their house towers to goof-off with their friends._

_Lily watched as Ray talked joyfully with his friends. He didn't even bother looking at her._

_"Um...Ray?" Lily called out. Ray turned around irritated and bored._

_"What?" He scowled._

_"It's getting late...I should go." Lily was waiting for Ray to say something, but Ray looked uninterested and dull._

_"So?" Ray asked again dully, "Why should I care?"_

_Lily was startled and by the looks of everyone else, they were too. "Ray, I was wondering if you wanted to drop me off at the Gryffindor tower?" Lily asked hopefully._

_"That would be a waste of my time. Sorry, I don't waste my time on girls." He looked at her queasily and then turned to the Slytherin table and looked at Snape in, almost, a flirting way. "See Severus over there." Ray pointed and Lily watched as Ray licked his lips sexily. "Now, he is worth my time. Excuse me."_

_Ray headed for the Slytherin table and extended a hand out to Snape. "My dear fellow!" he exclaimed. "You, by far, are the most gorgeous person I have ever had the chance to lay my eyes on!"_

_Snape thought it must have been some trick and punched Ray in the face. Ray got up off the floor to face the Slytherins' howling laughter. "Your punches are sweet and refreshing, my dear fellow! Although I would have preferred a kiss, this is not bad at the least."_

_Lily stood up, tears now in her eyes, from her perspective, she believed that Ray was insulting her. Swinging her heavy book bag onto one shoulder she ran out of the Great Hall towards the Gryffindor tower._

**_Flashback_**

Another tear fell down Lily's cheeks and more filled her eyes ready to pour out at moment's notice.

Feeling tired and weak she heard her stomach growl again. She had not eaten anything except for the salad at dinner.

Lily laid silent and still not wanting to waste the precious energy that she had left. A door opened quietly in the dark and she strained her eyes to see who it was, but the black velvet air could not be seen through.

Lily heard footsteps coming closer to her bed near the window. The moonless sky did not aide her curiosity. At first, Lily began thinking that it was just her imagination, but that proved to be wrong, when a whisper from the darkness was heard.

"Lily?" It came. The voice was unrecognizable. It was so low that Lily took a moment to realize that it was not her imagination.

"Lily?" It came again. But this time it was more audible.

Lily sat up in her bed; she felt a weight sitting on her bed. "Who is it?" She asked shocked and curious.

"It's me; James." The voice was calm.

"James? What are you doing here?" Lily questioned. Lily's stomach growled louder at the moment, and even in the darkness, James could see Lily blush scarlet.

"I have a surprise for you. Will you come with me?" He asked extending his hand.

Lily didn't know what to say. _What surprise?_ Her brain ordered. "What surprise?" Lily spoke quietly.

Diondra was moving in her bed and Lily made a mental note to lower her voice. Lily felt James move closer to her face to whisper.

"You do know the meaning of the word, don't you?" He touched her cheek and she blushed not knowing why.

"But why?" Lily asked again.

"Trust me? Please, stop with the interrogation. We have to go now. Follow me, and quietly." James pulled her out of bed and Lily forgot to hesitate in her surprise.

James dragged Lily out of the Girl's dorm and into the lightless common room.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked; she was confused now.

"Shhh!" James called back. "I am taking you somewhere. Please, relax. I am not going to hurt you."

Lily calmed down and followed James out of the common room into the cold corridor.

Lily began to shudder, seeing that she was only wearing a white tank top and plain navy pants. In her hurry, she had forgotten her cloak. The corridor brought, with the chill, the light. Lily looked up to see James; he was studying a piece of parchment very carefully. He looked at Lily when he felt his eyes on her.

"Don't worry. We won't get caught." He saw her state and her shivering with coldness. He, instantly, removed his cloak and poured it cross her.

Lily didn't understand why James was doing this, but she followed curiously. He led her down the corridor and they turned and walked for an endless time. James was holding her hand and he was bent reading the parchment. His hands were warm and Lily felt her stomach clench.

James led her into a corridor filled with many portraits of odd things; he kept searching for the right one. His face showed realization when he found the one.

His pulled a dazed Lily closer to the painting. It was a painting of a fairly large fruit basket filled with every fruit imaginable. James grinned at Lily and Lily looked questioningly back. James took out his wand and tapped the greenish-yellowish pear on the painting.

Suddenly the painting moved back revealing a large door; James pulled a stuck Lily towards, and inside the door.

The room inside was marvelous. It was a replica of the Great Hall, only without the hundred students; it was filled with hundreds of house-elves.

"Welcome, Mr. Potter." An elderly looking house-elf called out. He was working quite dangerously close to the stove.

"Hello, Fred. This is my friend, Lily."

Lily was too shocked to speak. She had never been in a room like this. She looked up at James admiringly and curiously.

As if reading her mind, James answered, "Welcome to the Kitchens, Lily."

He was still holding her hand tightly. He led her over to a small table at the corner of the huge room.

"James," Lily began, still confused, "What are we doing here?"

"Well," James began, "I am really hungry. So, I am here to eat."

"But why am I here?" Lily asked again impatiently.

"Because I don't like to eat alone. Naturally, I would ask Remus, Sirius or Peter to come with me, but they are all sleeping soundly and I didn't want to disturb them. Remus can get really ugly if you wake him up in the middle of a good dream." James's eyes bore into Lily's and he couldn't help but lose his words.

"Take me back at once!" Lily ordered unbelievably.

"Look, I am hungry. Please, let me eat." James protested with a puppy-dog face. Lily hesitated, but agreed to stay until he was finished eating. "Thanks, Lily! Hey, Fred!"

The elderly looking house-elf immediately left his post by the stove and came hurrying over to James and Lily. "Yes, Sir?"

"Can you please get me some a chocolate sundae, and maybe some butterbeer?" James turned to Lily, "And what would you like to have, Lily?"

"No, thanks." Lily shook her head, "I am not that hungry." Her stomach growled madly.

"Doesn't sound like it." James grinned and chuckled softly. "Please, eat something, at least, to accompany me."

"I will have some butterbeer, then." Lily said to the house-elf.

The house-elf scurried away and instantly came with a large bowl of ice cream and two large cups of butterbeer.

Lily began drinking one of the best butterbeers she had ever tasted, and James began eating the large bowl of ice cream. James took a small spoonful and then looked at Lily. Her cup was already half empty.

"Would you like to have some? Please try it. Fred is quite the expert on sundaes." James held up a spoonful of ice cream to her mouth. Her mind cried for her to taste it and instantly, Lily opened her mouth and grabbed the spoon giggling.

The ice cream was better than she had expected. The delicious, rich chocolate flavor burst in her mouth and made her oddly, warm up.

James chuckled seeing her hungry expression, "Would you like some more?" He held up another spoonful and fed Lily.

Lily this it continued for another hour. Lily had finished the entire bowl, laughing and giggling as James told her the 'Marauder detentions'.

Lily had lost all thought of time, it must have been way past midnight when James finally led her back to the Girls' dorm.

Lily turned around to face James; she looked into his hazel, warm eyes. "Thank you." She whispered.

"Please, don't mention it." He leaned in closer to look at her and she took a step back.

She felt the hard wall touch her back and James stepped closer moving his arms slowly around her tiny waist.

"James?" Lily questioned looking up; they were uncomfortably close and Lily could not even breathe easily.

James wasn't listening; he was looking into her fresh pickled green eyes. He moved in closer grinning broadly and closed the small gap between them.

Lily tried to resist the kiss but couldn't help it. Although she didn't kiss back, she didn't protest either. James kissed her quietly holding her up against the wall as she started to melt in his arms.

_What am I doing? _Lily screamed finding reality still existing inside of her, _Remember Ray? How could you betray him like that? _Lily's brain kicked her back to reality and she reluctantly pushed James away. James wasn't shocked or surprised.

Lily's eyes had tears in them and she held up her hand when James started to apologize. "Goodnight, James." With that Lily walked into the Girls' dorm and quietly shut the door.

James smiled satisfied. _She is so perfect! _He thought returning to the Boys' dorm cloaklessly smiling insane.

**Next chapter.... Don't know yet...but something good is guaranteed...I hope**

**Do you like it so far? Do you hate it? Please review!**

**Thanks so much! **

**dinis**


	3. Gentleman Get Detention? Why?

**Hello people! Welcome to my latest installment of Feel My Love…written after a long time, I know. Having tons of homework and tests everyday is not exactly a writer's dream so excuse me for the long wait. I spent every available second on this chapter, so I hope you like it. **

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am not the owner of any characters you may recognize. They all belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. **

Chapter 3: Gentleman Get Detention? Why?

Lying in bed, Lily was reluctantly focusing all her thoughts on the surprising events of the night. _Why did James kiss me? _Her thoughts horribly lingered around this one question. _Why did I just let him? Did I betray Ray? I love Ray! I declared I did! No, I do! I must stop this with James! _Lily looked next to her bed where Piper was sleeping soundly undisturbed by anything. Lily moved around soundlessly in the dark until she finally abandoned all answerless questions and let restless sleep occupy her for the remainder of the night.

James looked around the Boy's dormitory thinking about one of the best nights he had ever had. The beds in the room were empty and untouched. James chuckled as he jumped onto his own untouched four-poster bed. Remus, Sirius, and Peter were still out enjoying themselves on the Ravenclaw Raid. James licked his lips thinking about how it felt to have Lily on them. Her sweet figure had melted into his arms so desperately. James slept magnificently that night.

* * *

The alarm clock rang loudly, but it was nothing compared to Diondra's shrieks coming from the bathroom.

"Argh! What's wrong with Dia?" an agitated Grace yelled loudly from her bed.

Lily woke with a start and slowly sat up, painfully remembering the events of the night before.

"Sorry!" Diondra came out of the bathroom in her bathrobe smelling strongly like lemons. "I accidentally turned on the cold water. Oh! Good morning, Lils!" Diondra magically dressed herself and dried her thick blonde hair the same way.

Piper looked at Lily and then at Diondra, who shrugged at Piper's questioning looks.

"Lily hasn't been the same lately." Grace, also up from her bed, added quietly to the wordless conversation.

"Well, she hasn't eaten anything in nearly two days." Piper arranged her books in order and placed them one by one in her book bag.

"We must do something." Diondra put in a serious tone. "We can talk to her today and try to convince her to eat something."

"So, any plans for Snape today?" Grace asked grinning playfully while picking out her outfit.

"His name is Severus!" Diondra yelled. She had never approved of people calling her so-called-love by his last name, although she sometimes did herself.

Lily came out of the bathroom minutes later fully dressed and ready. It only took Grace another ten minutes to get ready and then the four girls headed out for another normal day.

By now, Lily had released her mind of all thought on James and just focused on her classes.

The Great Hall was rather unusually occupied with Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff students, but the Ravenclaw table was completely empty.

_Where is everybody? _Lily thought to herself as Grace wondered loudly. "Where is everybody, or at least one-fourth of everybody?"

"If you mean the Ravenclaws," Diondra started distractedly, "I have no idea. This is rather odd actually."

"What is odd, my dear Dia?" Sirius's voice was unmistakably heard behind Diondra and Diondra spun around surprised. Sirius grinned widely and Diondra narrowed her eyes.

"I suppose you had something to do with this, right?" Piper said from behind Diondra.

"If it's something bad then no way…but if it's something makes you happy, then definitely!" Sirius's reply was disregarded by turned faces but was still listened to and apprehended by the girls.

Piper, Diondra, Grace and Lily ignored the rest of Sirius's comments and sat down at the Gryffindor table all still bearing puzzled looks.

Breakfast appeared instantly as usual, and the girls began eating their pancakes and cereal. But Lily sat there starring at the Ravenclaw table as if someone would pop up out of thin air.

A loud brink of laughter disturbed Lily's starring and made her turn her head towards the end of the Gryffindor table where James and his friends were sitting. James, as if noticing her starring, suddenly made eye-contact and smiled charmingly. _God! I can't stand it when he smiles like that! iggnorant bastard.How dare hekiss me!_Lily thought to herself shifting her gaze onto her pancakes instead.

A loud burst of laughter erupted as the doors of the Great Hall opened and short figures, the size of midgets came waddling in like penguins dressed from head to toe in hot-pink feathers and nothing else.

"Hey! Sirius, why aren't the girls covered with feathers?" James observed.

"We pulled out of that idea at the last minute, mate." Remus whispered yawning, "Sirius can be quite persuasive especially when it comes to his ladies."

"Who is flavor this week?" James whispered back uninterested.

"Sandra Bennett, no Sarah, but still, she's a good snogger." Came Sirius's voice as he joined them. "Oy! Look at your girlfriend, Prongs. She looks as if a snake bit her head off."

James turned towards Lily and he couldn't help but hide a smile. Sirius's description was quite right; Lily looked so frightened and angry, but mostly beautiful.

"I love the new look. Adopt it." Diondra smirked and commented as Ray passed by over to Lily.

"Shut up, stupid!" Was all that could come out of Ray's high girlish tone.

"Well, that was a creative name for me. Never been called that one if my life. I suppose everyone must think I am stupid just because I beat you in all the subjects and not to mention how much I love to spank your behind in Quidditch." Diondra murmured loudly so the whole hall could here.

"Dia, please don't." Lily pleaded. Diondra shrugged but didn't say anything.

Ray stood by Lily's side waiting impatiently to see what she had to say.

"Ray," Lily began carefully choosing her words before she said them, "I think the spell will wear off in a few hours."

"No, sorry, Lily flower. The spell is good for a month, two if we get lucky." Sirius grinned wide showing all his snow-white teeth (he is standing up).

"I should have known you would be behind all of this!" Ray narrowed his eyes and made a tight fist at his side.

"Heeellllooo!" Sang Sirius, "Wake up and smell the clues, darling Ray! Of course I am the one behind this. Do you honestly believe for one second that a brilliant idea, such as this, could have come from any other evil mind besides mine? Tsk tsk, my dear friend. I expected more from you."

"Hey! The idea of the feather was mine!" Remus yelled out from where he was sitting.

"I will get you for this Black!" Ray said through clenched teeth.

"He didn't do it alone you know! Me and Peter helped, then how come he gets all the credit?" Remus commented again receiving applause and a look of high admiration from the lady population.

Ray couldn't bear the humiliation. He turned on his heels and left without saying so much as a word to Lily.

* * *

"That was bloody brilliant!" James said for the millionth time that morning in class.

"Prongs, man, that was nothing, wait until you see what I have planned for tomorrow." Sirius whispered back laying on the desk in History of Magic class.

"What do you mean, for tonight?" James asked confused.

"Prongs, you didn't actually think that the raid was gonna stop after just one prank did you?"

* * *

Charms had never seemed as hard as it did that afternoon as James sat there in class trying to figure out how to charm a book to speak.

"Mr. Potter! Please, do not give up. You must try!" yelled Professor Flitwick impatiently.

"I am sorry, Professor. I am trying!" James said politely.

"No, no, no!" yelled Professor Flitwick again, "Your wand work and wave is all wrong! Ms. Evans, would you be so kind and help Mr. Potter with a basic first-year lesson of wand movement please."

James thought he was going to burst with happiness. All those years of stinking at Charms would finally pay off if only he could get Lily to touch and hold his hand.

"Sure, professor." Lily replied politely moving over to where James was seated.

Sirius slid down giving Lily some space in between to sit down.

"Hey." James greeted calmly.

"Hey." Lily didn't smile or make eye-contact. Instead she kept starring at the wand in James's hand. "Try the spell."

James did as told but nothing happened. James shrugged and smiled flirtatiously. "I do try, just can't do it."

Lily sighed and then lifted her wand to demonstrate. "Like this. _Parliosa._" Successfully the book started speaking a mile a minute spilling out all the contents in the book.

James tried again, but nothing.

"No, James hold your wand like this." Lily griped her wand out to show James to replicate, but James purposefully mixed and twisted his fingers.

"Like this?"

"No," Lily put her wand down and grabbed James's hand gently removing his fingers from around his wand. "Now, like this." She placed them in the right order on the wand and told him to grip it tightly like that.

"Like this?" James smiled innocently as he twisted and mixed up his fingers again.

"No, James, pay attention." Lily grabbed his hand again and corrected his finger positions. This occurred for a few more times each resulting in Lily growing more impatient until finally James decided she had been pushed too far and kept his fingers straight.

"Now say _Parliosa._" Lily instructed pronouncing the word slowly.

The book suddenly erupted with a booming voice signaling the entire class that James had finally gotten the spell correct. Professor Flitwick was so relieved that he broke out into applause.

"Great job Ms Evans! Very well done! You should help Mr. Potter often. In fact, I know, you will be his peer tutor until he masters all the past years' spells. What do you say Ms Evans?" Flitwick waited for the reluctant but surely coming 'okay' and after a long pause it did come quietly and he beamed.

James felt like he could hug Flitwick to death quite possibly. Even more when he continued on suggesting, more like ordering, Lily to maintain a journal about all their tutoring sessions and that he would like to read at least about five sessions a week. With this came the offer of no homework for Lily until James masters his skills.

* * *

"Honestly, we don't give Flitwick enough credit." James said through mashed potatoes that night at the dinner table. "We should do something for him."

"Prongs, we are pranksters. We do humiliating stuff to people, not nice." Sirius replied looking sarcastic, "Although, I am sure that Flitwick has something for Sprout."

"Professor Sprout? The herbology teacher?" Peter whispered surprised.

"Yea, I have seen him lingering near the greenhouses lately." Remus agreed. "But that really doesn't prove a thing."

"Whach aboo dee floush hee geave hur?" Peter said through a mouth full of food.

"Exactly, Peter has got a point." Sirius said a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Uhh, translation for all those who don't speak Peter please?" Remus asked confused.

"He said 'what about the flowers he gave her?'. Moony listen and learn." James rolled his eyes as Remus shrugged defensively.

"Too true, so it's settled then?" Remus asked, "We are gonna fix them up together?"

"Yesh, too right you are Mr. Moony."

"So tonight, I think we best split up." Remus said. "Peter and I will go to the greenhouses, while you and Sirius can finish phase two of the Ravenclaw raid."

* * *

"Shut up! Stop moving, Lily!" Piper struggled to pull the sleepy Lily in the dark.

"Stop, Piper! Let go of me!" Lily wined. "Where are you taking me?"

"Where do you think we're taking you? You haven't eaten anything in forever. We are taking you to the Kitchens." Diondra pushed Lily from behind as Lily struggled to get released.

"No! Come on that's forbidden." Lily protested loudly.

"Shut up before you wake up Flinch and that bloody cat." Grace cried.

The girls had decided that the diet had gone far enough and if Lily wouldn't eat with her own hands then the only thing they could do to help her was to feed her themselves.

"Now, listen to us, Lily." Piper started as she stopped in front of the portrait that led to the Kitchens. "Stop worrying. If you don't eat anything you're going to really regret it. Now, whether you like it or not, we are going to make you eat something."

Lily stopped protesting and entered the now open door to the Kitchens. She remembered the other night with James and blushed.

"Butterbeers for us and a dinner for Lily?" Grace asked the group for confirmation to be able to tell the house-elf waiting so patiently; when they all nodded their heads she continued, "Three butterbeers and a dinner then."

The house-elf returned in moments as the girls took their seats at the large table in the middle of the room. Lily sat quietly remembering every moment with James and blushing more crazily as every second past. Fortunately, her friends didn't notice Lily; instead they were discussing quietly methods of how to make Lily to eat.

"Maybe we can stuff in down her throat?" Grace said quietly. "Or perhaps we can charm her to eat."

"No, how about I just eat everything you give me?" Lily smiled at her concerned friends and saw how relieved their faces looked the moment she said it. "Thanks guys!"

"Aw! What are friends for?" Grace smiled.

* * *

"Ouch! Padfoot, that was my toe." James whispered loudly wincing over the pain.

"Sorry. I can hardly see where we are, how in the merlin am I supposed to know where my feet are?" Sirius said defensively struggling with the map in his hands. "Oh! Man, wait until you see this."

"What is it?" asked James.

"It is four beautiful girls coming towards us."

"Who?"

"Really James, I never thought you could be so thick." Sirius laughed, "Who else? It's dear Lily and her friends."

"Wait, let's hide," James said panicking.

"Tell me you did not just say that." Sirius said holding back his laughter. "Jamesie, we are under an invisibility cloak. _Therefore they cannot see us_."

"Right." James said faintly as he caught a glimpse of Lily laughing heartily with her friends.

"We've got trouble; Flinch is coming." Sirius looked at James and James looked at Lily.

"Well, you know what we have to do." James said sighing.

"No! I don't want detention this week. Hello, I've got a date with Sarah." Sirius waved his hand in protest.

"Sandra." James smirked.

"Whatever," Sirius whispered on, "point is that we should not be doing this."

"Yes, we should." With that James grabbed the invisibility cloak off of them only to receive shocked faces from the four girls that were standing in the corner.

"What are you doing—what is—is that an invisibility cloak?" Diondra said smiling mischievously.

"No time to explain." James walked swiftly over to where they were standing and whispered, "Here, get under this cloak, all of you, and don't talk no matter what. Okay."

"Man, I hate being a gentleman." Sirius whispered loudly just as Professor Flinch entered their part of the corridor.

"And what do we have here?" Flinch smirked.

"Hi! I am a human, and I think he is one too." Sirius said sarcastically pointing to him and James. James grinned and shook his head. "And we are here waiting for you to put us in detention."

"What are you doing at this hour? In the corridor?" Flinch asked ignoring Sirius's comment.

"What do you think we are doing? We were making out." Sirius said with an airy tone.

"Shut up, Sirius." James said grinning widely, "we were just getting parchment from the classroom." He held up the blank map in his hand.

"Sneaking around is suspicious." Flinch said quietly, "I ought to report you to the headmaster."

"Really, Flinch, do you honestly think that this is important enough to take it to Professor Dumbledore? I mean, don't you have some authority in this school? At least you have enough power to give detentions right?" James asked like he cared.

"You're right, lad." Flinch considered these questions for what seemed like forever before he decided to give them (James and Sirius) a week of detentions in the trophy room.

"Bloody bastard," Sirius whispered after Flinch left.

"That was quite rude." Diondra whispered loudly. The cloak was pulled off and the four girls stood quietly. "I like Flinch. I like his cat too."

"And I am the one who just saved you a week of detentions." Sirius moaned. "Is this fair, James?"

"Shut up, Sirius," James said coolly and turned back to the girls. Lily was holding the cloak up to him.

"Thanks." She whispered quietly. "I still have your other cloak too from the other night."

"Oh!" James remembered taking back his possession. "Keep it for awhile. I won't need it until winter starts."

Lily nodded, although she wasn't quite sure whether James was joking or not. Sirius was still wining about the detentions and Diondra was laughing heartily.

"We should get back before McGonagall gets us this time." James suggested.

"Thanks for everything." Lily said at the foot of the Girl's dorm steps where all the boys were standing to say goodbye.

"No worries." James said smiling faintly.

"Yeah, sorry about the detentions," Piper said frowning.

"Ah! Pretty Piper, you don't worry about that. Me and Jamesie are big boys; we can handle ourselves." Sirius smiled charmingly making Piper blush and look away.

"No, sorry, _we_ don't worry about you." Diondra said.

"I wasn't talking to you." Sirius stuck out his tongue and Diondra lifted her hand to smack him but before she got to him, he ran up the stairs to the Boys' Dorm.

"Okay, good night ladies," James waved goodnight and followed his friend upstairs.

Even before he entered the room, James heard the Grace saying to Lily, "What other night were you talking about?"

* * *

Lily awoke the next morning feeling fresh and completely awake. Diondra's alarm clock read 5 in the morning. Lily looked around at the snoring beds and chuckled. She got up quietly not wanting to wake anyone up. Convincing herself that she had enough time to get ready later, she grabbed a book off the shelf and went to go read in the common room.

By the time she got down there, there was already somebody present sitting in her favorite seat up the fire sleeping.

"Potter," Lily sighed. _He really doesn't look that bad. No Ray, but not bad. _

As if sensing her standing there, James opened his eyes and Lily blushed when he smiled at her standing there.

"Hey!" He yawned stretching his arms and getting up.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Lily asked as James stood up.

"I couldn't sleep," James grinned saying. "Looks like you are getting an early start." He pointed to the book in her hand and she chuckled.

"Yeah, I thought I would catch up on my reading a bit. I don't feel like going back to sleep."

"Wanna go grab breakfast?" James offered.

"Uh…" Lily thought deciding what to say. The last time she agreed to go anywhere with James, he ended up kissing her and she ended up with mindless thoughts; keeping all this in mind and the fact that she was pretty hungry said, "Sure, why not?" Before she could collect what she said, James was leading her away and out of the common room.

**Really not how I wanted to end it…but I don't know. Do you hate it? Love it? Like it? Please review!**

**dinis**


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